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Japan set to delay start of postal privatization
The start of the Japanese government's planned privatization of postal services will be delayed for up to one year until April 2008 due to parliament's rejection of related bills last month. The postal privatization minister Heizo Takenaka met Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the premier's office and the two reached an agreement on the delay, the minister said at a press conference Tuesday. Since the six postal system bills to launch privatization in April 2007 failed to pass the parliament in early August, the government has been reviewing them for resubmission after Sunday's House of Representatives general election. Concerned about delays in the development of computer systems, the government has decided to stipulate in the new bills that the 10-year privatization process will begin on October 1, 2007. Its commencement can be further delayed for another six months until April 2008 if the computer systems are not developed in time, Takenaka said. The new bills will be submitted to an extraordinary session of the parliament, which is expected to convene on September 21. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said at a separate press conference Tuesday the new postal privatization bills will be submitted to the parliament either on September 27 or September 30. Koizumi had aimed to have the Diet enact the privatization bills last month. But the House of Councillors rejected them, prompting Koizumi to dissolve the lower house for an election. Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a landslide victory in the election. Along with its coalition partner the New Komeito party, the ruling bloc now controls more than two-thirds of seats in the powerful lower chamber. The bills look certain to be enacted this time, with a number of upper house members who voted against the privatization bills recently indicating they now intend to support them due to the LDP 's huge election win.
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